June 7, 2005 Time to pick a side -- or stay away from polls
By Rob Jennings
DAILY RECORD
Registered voters who don't belong to a political party are Morris County's largest voting bloc, outnumbering Democrats and Republicans combined.
In general elections, they're often a deciding force and courted exhaustively by both major parties.
Today, unaffiliated voters will be sidelined -- unless they're willing to make a last-minute decision to pledge their allegiances to either the Democrats or Republicans.
The catch, though, is that once a voter registers with a party, state law says they may never again be classified as unaffiliated unless they re-register in another county.
They may change party affiliations.
Democratic and Republican leaders in Morris County, though, said they don't see the longstanding law as a problem.
"I think it's fair. It's been that way a long time," county Democratic chairman Lew Candura said.
"It's been that way for a million years. I've never seen anybody complain," county Republican chairman John Sette said.
Of Morris County's 295,047 registered voters, a total of 161,400 are unaffiliated with any party, county clerk Joan Bramhall said. There are 92,601 Republicans, 39,737 Democrats and 1,240 Independents, she added.
